Arctic Animal Fun: Arctic Whales Lesson

Arctic Animal Fun

A month-long unit of preschool ideas 

for different Arctic animals

Welcome to the final week of my Arctic Animal Fun unit. 

Each week there will be books I recommend to go with each topic, a craft or two, songs, motion rhymes/finger plays, and a fun game to play. 

This is the tentative schedule:

Week 1: Polar Bears

Week 2: Arctic Fox

Week 3: Walrus

Week 4: Snowy Owl

Week 5: Narwhal, Orca, Beluga Whale

We continue to start each class with the song "Good Morning to You" plus the snowy songs/fingerplays I found in a book I reviewed last year called I'm a Little Teapot!: Presenting Preschool Storytime compiled by Jane Cobb. 

We sang: 

Snowflakes

(to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Snowflakes whirling all around,

all around, all around

Snowflakes whirling all around,

They are covering the ground.

(The original last line was, "Until they cover all the ground," but it didn't sound quite right to me, so I changed it. We fluttered our fingers all around through the song and spread our arms out for the last line.)

And of course our poem/finger play:

The Snow Fell Softly

The snow fell softly all the night

flutter fingers downward

It made a blanket soft and white

spread arms out

It covered houses, flowers and ground,

make pointed house, finger flowers, flat hands

But never made a single sound

get quieter and put finger in front of mouth

The children are doing a great job memorizing this poem.

Then we got into the actual lesson.

Snowy Owl Lesson

As we did the last four weeks, we started out by skimming through the book, What Lives in the Arctic?. The children enjoyed being reminded of the animals we have already learned about, and guessing which one we would do next.

This book gives some brief information for a handful of arctic animals with lovely photographs of each animal. There was a page for the beluga whale, so we learned about that whale first. 

Our main books for the class were:

I didn't read all these books to the children, but used some of them to get information on the different whales. After reading What Lives in the Arctic, I read In Arctic Waters, which introduces several arctic animals that live or go into the water. They are playing around the ice and a man comes. I also read Hello, Baby Beluga (which had the baby beluga giving facts about baby belugas) and Wendell the Narwhal (which was completely fictional and is about a whale who thinks it is too loud under the sea and is upset that he can't play "music" like the other animals. He ends up becoming the conductor with, using his tusk to "tap, tap, tap" while the other animals make their sounds. We ran out of time to read Whales Passing, though we looked through Orcas for information.

Craft

We then made our Paper Plate Arctic Whale Wheel that I shared about in last week's Littles Learning Link Up.

 Math Lesson

We used a ruler to measure how big the beluga would be. 

We realized we had to use the longer wall and beyond (almost to the door) to see how big a orca would be.

Songs

We sang our "Did You Ever See a Polar Bear?" song which we have sung every week, but this week I also added a verse for the whales. I think their favorite part is the verse for the arctic fox. They LOVE creeping this way and that way. There are many giggles while we do this.

Did You Ever See a Polar Bear?

(To the Tune of Did you Ever See a Lassie?)

by Karen Waide

Did you ever see a polar bear

a polar bear, a polar bear

Did you ever see a polar bear

Sliding on the ice?

Sliding this way and that way

Sliding this way and that way

Did you ever see a polar bear

sliding on the ice?

Motions to go with first verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then step and slide left and right a few times.

Go back to shrugging for the last line and step to the side one last time.

Did you ever see an arctic fox

an arctic fox, an arctic fox

Did you ever see an arctic fox

following a bear?

Creeping this way and that way

Creeping this way and that way

Did you ever see an arctic fox

following a bear?

Motions to go with second verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your hands in front of you and pretend to creep.
Then creep quickly left and quickly right on tiptoes.

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to creep forward.

Did you ever see a walrus

a walrus, a walrus

Did you ever see a walrus

climb on the ice?

Pulling up with their tusks here

Pulling up with their tusks there

Did you ever see a walrus

climb on the ice?

Motions to go with third verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your hands in front of your face with the index fingers pointing down and pretend to pull up
Then do the same to the left and then to the right

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to pull up with tusks again

Did you ever see a snowy owl

a snowy owl, a snowy owl

Did you ever see a snowy ow

l

flying up so high?

Flying this way and that way

Flying this way and that way

Did you ever see a snowy owl

flying up so high?

Motions to go with fourth verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your arms out to the side and pretend to fly. Fly to the left and right while singing "this way and that way."

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to fly.

Did you ever see beluga

or narwhal or orca

Did you ever see the three whales

Flipping their tails

flipping this way and that way

Flipping this way and that way

Did you ever see the three whales

flipping their tails

Motions to go with fifth verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then hold up 3 fingers on one hand to show the three whales. Then use one hand to flip back and forth like a tail. Flip to the left and the right, then the left and the right again. Shrug shoulders, then flip hand a couple more times.

Then we really got moving with another song I came up with. We used whale stick puppets I made by printing out pictures of belugas, narwhals, and one orca, attaching them to blue construction paper, and attaching a craft stick to them. Each child had one whale, and they gathered in their groups.

As we sang the verse about their whales, those children swam past me. Then they all swim away from the orca (running all the way around the room). We sang this one many times so everyone who wanted to could have a chance being the orca.

The Whales Are in the Sea

(to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)

by Karen Waide

The whales are in the sea

the whales are in the sea

hi ho the derry-o

They’re in the Arctic Sea

Beluga’s swimming by

Beluga’s swimming by

hi ho the derry-o

He’s in the Arctic Sea

Narwal joins him there

Narwal joins him there

hi ho the derry-o

They’re in the Arctic Sea

Orca swims along

Orca swims along

hi ho the derry-o.

There’s danger in the sea

Turn and swim away

Turn and swim away

hi ho the derry-o

  

Swimming in the sea

Then we played Musical Icebergs just like we played Musical Pawprints during our polar bear lesson. I just placed pieces of computer paper on the floor, one per child. As the song "Baby Beluga" by Raffi played, they swam around, making sure not to step on the icebergs. I removed one iceberg each time. The child who didn't get on an iceberg had to go and sit at the table.

And that was the conclusion of our Arctic Animals unit.

Stop by next week as we start a short lesson on hibernating animals.